


Like a Fly to Honey

by SegaBarrett



Category: Breaking Bad
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 21:07:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9625394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: Walt works his charms on his assistant.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fingalsanteater](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fingalsanteater/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I don't own Breaking Bad, and I make no money from this.

If Walt had gone further in graduate school, he would have loved to have had a student like Gale. 

He had the core knowledge down, of course, and he was pleasant enough. Much more pleasant to work with than Jesse, with his constant whining and running around like a puppy that hadn’t been housetrained.

But Gale had quickly become expendable when it came to the choice of Walt’s own life or his. He had the right; he wasn’t going to start being selfness and lay down his own life now, not when he had come so far. 

Expendable… But still useful. Maybe there was another way. Just until he had a clear way out, of course. There was no reason to get attached to anyone he met in this business.

Of course there was Jesse – but Jesse was different. Jesse had known the Old Walt, and maybe that was why he would go to the ends of the Earth. 

Not that he would be happy about it. Jesse Pinkman was very likely to drive him to his grave. 

But Gale, Gale, Gale.

Maybe he wasn’t an annoying puppy like Jesse, but some days he seemed a puppy nonetheless. Everything Walt said was endlessly fascinating, groundbreaking, wonderful – if Walt was so damned wonderful, how had he ended up grinding away at some shitty high school job?

Or maybe Gale only saw what Walt saw himself as. That was a scary thought.

And not one he had time to turn over too deeply. If Gale didn’t vouch for him, didn’t play the fool for Gus just enough, then Walt and Jesse could turn it over from the inside of a box for all eternity, or whatever happened next.

Philosophy had never been Walt’s subject. 

“Gale,” he nearly sang as he walked into the lab. 

Gale looked up with a nervous, fluttery look, as if he had been caught in the middle of doing something embarrassing. He quickly put the coffee he had been drinking down on the table and smiled up at Walt.

“Hello.”

Walter put on his most winning smile, the one that had gotten Skyler to look up from her crossword puzzle at him so many years ago.

“Gale… I… Well….” He put his hand on his hip and let out a sigh, as if he had been tangling with a question overnight and still hadn’t quite decided which way to go with it. “I feel so embarrassed saying this. But I… can’t stop thinking about us working together. You learning from me… Me, learning from you…”

“I… love learning from you,” Gale replied, a blush appearing on his cheeks. It was like shooting fish in a barrel, or like taking candy from a baby. Walt suddenly felt more confident than he had when he had walked into the lab. 

“Where are you… with the formula? I’m… picking it up quickly, recently. I know I’ll have it soon.”

“Gale… You see… That may be the… small problem.”

“What problem?”

“I fear that as soon as you learn the formula… I may be out of a job.”

For someone working in the field Gale was employed in, he seemed to be very surprised by this. It was unlikely that he understood that Walt was using quite a euphemism, either.

“Why would Mr. Fring fire you? You’re the best chemist I’ve seen in a long time. And I’ve studied under some greats, let me tell you.”

“I’m very flattered, Gale. But suffice to say… I’ve ruffled some feathers with Mr. Fring.” He tried not to spit the name, tried not to slip and call him “Gus”. 

“Oh, I’m sure if you talk it over with him… he’ll understand.” But Gale was the one who seemed to be beginning to understand; something was dawning behind his eyes. Walter wasn’t sure if he had perhaps pushed too far. But if Gale ran… wasn’t that a win for him as well?

As long as it didn’t go sideways and end up with Gale in witness protection or something equally damaging. That wasn’t an option.

“I’m not sure he’s ready to hear me right now,” Walt said emphatically. “But you… You’re in like Flynn.”

“So you want me to… plead your case to Mr. Fring? I could do that. I would love to advocate for you. I think we’re a good team. We need each other.”

“I agree, Gale. I don’t think that I can get by without you… I made a mistake when I said we weren’t compatible. I suppose I was just… being hasty.”

“I… appreciate that. I won’t mess up again, Walter. I promise. I’m doing my best to be… exactly who you want.”

Walt felt a rush of semi-sadistic glee. 

“And you are… I know you’re trying, Gale. But…”

Gale leaned forward, hanging on each word.

“But…?” he prompted, when Walter wasn’t more forthcoming.

“But I may need you to… dumb it down a little bit. Do you understand what I’m talking about? Maybe… don’t try quite as hard.”

“You want me to… stall?”

As Gale asked the question, Walter crossed to move closer to him, uncomfortably close.

Uncomfortable for Gale, that was; Walter had put that emotion on the shelf along with many others some time ago. He sucked in a long breath and pictured himself taking all of the air out of the room, then exhaling and blowing it all back on to Gale’s neck. 

Gale shuddered. 

“Yes, stall. For me… So I can make us both…great. So we can be a team. I feel horrible… making you keep your skill under wraps… It’s probably maddening.” It had been for Walt; he remembered that, and felt a flash of white hot hate. Not for Gale, nor for anyone in particular, just for the whole monolith that was the past.

“…I can do that… I mean I’m not… It’s not like I have too big of an ego for that, or anything.” He flushed bright pink. “Not that I’m saying you do, or anything!”  
Walt leaned in again, breathed against Gale’s neck again.

“Of course not, Gale. I know exactly what you mean.” Before Gale had a chance to stammer out anything else, Walt nipped the soft white skin before him.

Gale let out what Walt would term a squeak.

The man really was so mouse-like that it would be laughable if he wasn’t the only thing standing between Walter and certain death. 

“You like that?” he whispered in Gale’s ear, let his tongue dance against the lobe and paint promises for him that would never come to pass. 

“Yes,” came Gale’s raspy voice. Walt wanted to laugh, and he wanted to pin Gale down right on the wide, perfectly red lab floor and have him right then and there.

It might be difficult to perfect them both at the same time, but Walter was up to the challenge.

Not here, though.

And not today. Today, he would plant a seed. And tomorrow, he would grow the tree that would bring him to safety.

Gale should consider himself lucky, Walter thought to himself, who gets to truly fuck their idols?

He pulled away and licked his lips.

“Let’s get to work, then. There’s a lot to do.”


End file.
